Ice Cream Sandwich adds a number of new features to Android, chiefly a merge between the Android 2.x version for smartphones and the Android 3.x "Honeycomb" version for tablets that Google rushed to market.

There's plenty of other work afoot to bring ICS to other phones. That's no surprise given the number of Android phones on the market, the fact that building Android gives programmers a chance to stand out in the hot mobile market, and the sad reality that many Android phone owners don't know if they'll get the new Android any other way.

Unofficial builds of Android give smartphone customers a way to get the newer builds of Android before their handset makers and mobile phone wireless operators provide official versions--which often they never do. For example, Sony Ericsson pledged to bring Ice Cream Sandwich to all its 2011 phones, which means X10 customers will have to rely on an unofficial build.

The unofficial Android builds also let people do things not available with ordinary Android such as overclock the processor for faster performance. Or, for those who want to venture farther afield, the builds can let people run Android on a Windows Phone model such as HTC's HD2.

About the author

Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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